Comanche [old reviews found]
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 3:36 pm
A review I wrote some time ago for a defunct French AW site, Thought I could post those ol'things here.
Comanche : Maximum Overkill
Comanche, the first one of several, Novalogic decided to create a game engine, VOXEL, who was capable of rendering life terrain and realistic looking objects, no other polygon game engine from that time could match that VOXEL engine. It was a revelation. Really, we are talking 1992, could run on a 386 CPU with 4 MB ram, yes 4 MB. It needed approx 500 Kb base memory, and some 3 MB XMS. No EMS allowed, you had to disable the EMS driver, in those days EMM386 or QEMM. Yep, those were the days. Astoning VGA graphics, full SB support, music and sound. Joystick support with good calibration. It looked really neat on a 13 or 14" monitor, great graphics, good colors.
The gameplay is great, it is not based on a campaign as in Gunship, but has about 70 missions divided into some episodes. Mainly search and destroy, also implemented is a full training section. You have to learn how to handle this chopter, the LHX AH64 Comanche, a light attack heli. The armement varies from a Vulcan cannon to hellfires, rockets and sidewinders. Each one with their own specifications. You are limited in fuel, you can't take too long to accomplish a mission.
The hellfires are those from the first generation, you have to keep your target locked with your laservisor. But you can switch targets if neccesary, the missile follows the laser beam. Also you can fire the hellfires with some interval to destroy several grouped targets, after a hit swith target to get the next one destroyed by a previously released missile, never seen before 1992.
The sidewinders are the 'fire and forget' type, lock, fire and they will take the shortest way to the target, no need to keep the target locked. Disadvantage: the target - mostly a enemy heli - can dive and hide behind terrain obstacles, causing your missile to get lost. That tric you can apply yourself when locked by a missile.
The cannon is only effective at short range, but you can destroy anything with it, from light adversary heli, hokum heli's, even armoured vehicles if you get enough time to put the neccesary rounds in it. Freely movable in a short angle it is a usefull armement, you will need it several times to be able to accomplish some missions.
The rockets are a pain in the ass, unguided, armour piercing and short range. Hard to learn hitting a target, even the static ones. To destroy a moving armoured vehicle you need to fire salvo after salvo, and even then you need luck to place enough hits to achieve your goal. The rockets are mainly usefull against static targets, oil tanks , tents and sheds.
On several missions you will get a wingmen, you can use all his weaponry on your selected targets. Also sometimes they grant you the use of artillery salvo's, you have to lock a target and command the artillery. The enemies are sovjet type combattants, several kinds of them. And they fight back. So you will have to learn hiding behind terrain slopes, flying low and be fast. Never keep hanging around somewhere, keep moving and low.
You will also get several nightmissions, the nightgoggles gives a spooky effect.
The game as it is a pure dosgame can not run directly under NT/XP, on those OS you will need dosbox. Good thing anyway, it looks horrific on a big monitor, the pixels are enormeus. In fact it is best run on an old Dos pc with a small VGA monitor.
One minus : don't expect a realistic wargame. It isn't. Your AH64 can take a lot of hits before going down, the most enemies are destroyed too easely. All by all it is a fun heli flightsimulator, with some fairly good action in it.
My personal score: B+
======================
Publisher : NovaLogic, Inc.
Developer : NovaLogic, Inc.
Platform: DOS
Released : 1992
======================
Whoopsy, going down here
I'm not going to win the war
Lovely terrain
Burn, burn i say
Many bogeys here, gonna be fun
Night flight
Those oil tanks gonna get a rocket salvo
Comanche : Maximum Overkill
Comanche, the first one of several, Novalogic decided to create a game engine, VOXEL, who was capable of rendering life terrain and realistic looking objects, no other polygon game engine from that time could match that VOXEL engine. It was a revelation. Really, we are talking 1992, could run on a 386 CPU with 4 MB ram, yes 4 MB. It needed approx 500 Kb base memory, and some 3 MB XMS. No EMS allowed, you had to disable the EMS driver, in those days EMM386 or QEMM. Yep, those were the days. Astoning VGA graphics, full SB support, music and sound. Joystick support with good calibration. It looked really neat on a 13 or 14" monitor, great graphics, good colors.
The gameplay is great, it is not based on a campaign as in Gunship, but has about 70 missions divided into some episodes. Mainly search and destroy, also implemented is a full training section. You have to learn how to handle this chopter, the LHX AH64 Comanche, a light attack heli. The armement varies from a Vulcan cannon to hellfires, rockets and sidewinders. Each one with their own specifications. You are limited in fuel, you can't take too long to accomplish a mission.
The hellfires are those from the first generation, you have to keep your target locked with your laservisor. But you can switch targets if neccesary, the missile follows the laser beam. Also you can fire the hellfires with some interval to destroy several grouped targets, after a hit swith target to get the next one destroyed by a previously released missile, never seen before 1992.
The sidewinders are the 'fire and forget' type, lock, fire and they will take the shortest way to the target, no need to keep the target locked. Disadvantage: the target - mostly a enemy heli - can dive and hide behind terrain obstacles, causing your missile to get lost. That tric you can apply yourself when locked by a missile.
The cannon is only effective at short range, but you can destroy anything with it, from light adversary heli, hokum heli's, even armoured vehicles if you get enough time to put the neccesary rounds in it. Freely movable in a short angle it is a usefull armement, you will need it several times to be able to accomplish some missions.
The rockets are a pain in the ass, unguided, armour piercing and short range. Hard to learn hitting a target, even the static ones. To destroy a moving armoured vehicle you need to fire salvo after salvo, and even then you need luck to place enough hits to achieve your goal. The rockets are mainly usefull against static targets, oil tanks , tents and sheds.
On several missions you will get a wingmen, you can use all his weaponry on your selected targets. Also sometimes they grant you the use of artillery salvo's, you have to lock a target and command the artillery. The enemies are sovjet type combattants, several kinds of them. And they fight back. So you will have to learn hiding behind terrain slopes, flying low and be fast. Never keep hanging around somewhere, keep moving and low.
You will also get several nightmissions, the nightgoggles gives a spooky effect.
The game as it is a pure dosgame can not run directly under NT/XP, on those OS you will need dosbox. Good thing anyway, it looks horrific on a big monitor, the pixels are enormeus. In fact it is best run on an old Dos pc with a small VGA monitor.
One minus : don't expect a realistic wargame. It isn't. Your AH64 can take a lot of hits before going down, the most enemies are destroyed too easely. All by all it is a fun heli flightsimulator, with some fairly good action in it.
My personal score: B+
======================
Publisher : NovaLogic, Inc.
Developer : NovaLogic, Inc.
Platform: DOS
Released : 1992
======================
Whoopsy, going down here
I'm not going to win the war
Lovely terrain
Burn, burn i say
Many bogeys here, gonna be fun
Night flight
Those oil tanks gonna get a rocket salvo